AN  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  BY 


HON.  WILLIAM  H.  KELLEY, 

AT  GIRARD  AVENUE, 

ABOVE  ELEVENTH  ST. 

ON  OCTOBER  3RD,  1856. 


Mr.  KELLEY  was  appointed  DISTRICT  ATTORNEY,  for  the  County  of  Philadelphia,  under 
JOHN  K.  KANE,  Attorney  General  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania — appointed  by 
GOVERNOR  FRANCIS  R.  SHUNK.  He  was  afterwards  appointed 
JUDGE  OF  THE  COURT  OF  QUARTER  SESSIONS  of  the  City 
and  County  of  Philadelphia,  by  Governor  Shunk,  which 
office  he  now  holds. 


PUBLISHED,  AND  FOR  SALE  AT  THE  OFFICE  OF  THE 

PHILADELPHIA  MORNING  TIMES, 

47  SOUTH  THIRD  STREET. 


ADDRESS 


OF 


HON.  WM.  D. 


AT  GIRARD  AVENUE. 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY. 

The  Republican  party,  my  friends,  is  neither 
sectional  nor  aggressive.  It  is  the  conservative 
party  of  the  country.  It  aims  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  the  whole  country  by  promoting  the 
welfare  of  all  its  parts.  It  plants  itself  upon  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  that  great 
instrument  was  understood  by  its  framers,  and 
construed  by  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  their 
great  compeers.  It  addresses  itself  to  the  rea- 
son and  nobler  sentiments  of  the  people  of  the 
country,  and  holds  to  the  doctrine  that  u error 
may  be  safely  tolerated  where  truth  is  left  free  to 
oombat  it.”  It  is  the  party  of  peace.  It  aims  to 
promote  peaceful  relations  between  the  United 
States  and  all  other  people,  and  governments.  It 
disavows  the  piratical  doctrines  of  the  Ostend 
Manifesto,  and  says  that  our  only  power  of  inter- 
fering either  with  the  possessions  or  the  doctrines 
of  other  people,  or  other  governments,  is  by  setting 
before  them  an  example  of  prosperity  and  of  good 
government. 

I say  it  accepts  the  doctrine  that  “ error  may  be 
safely  tolerated  where  truth  is  -left  free  to  combat 
it ;”  and  it  gave  a remarkable  illustration  of  that 
fact  on  the  17th  of  last  month,  the  aniversary  of 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  On  that  day  the  Buchanan  party  of  Penn- 
sylvania assembled  in  Independence  Square.  I 
say  the  " Buchanan  party,”  for  I will  not  so  mis- 
use language  as  to  call  it  the  Democratic  party. 
Democracy  reverences  man  as  man  ; Democracy 
believes  not  only  in  the  right  of  man  to  own  him- 
self, but  believes  it  to  be  the  duty  of  government 
to  protect  the  poor  and  the  weak,  and  to  secure  to 
every  child  born  into  this  beautiful  world  equal 
chances  before  the  State  and  in  society ; and  as  the 
men  who  assembled  on  that  occasion  hold  adverse 
doctrines,  I will  not  call  them  the  Democratic 
party.  I say  on  that  day  the  u Buchanan  party,” 
assembled  in  Independence  Square,  to  the  number 
of  2500  men,  or  thereabouts,  calling  themselves  a 


convention  of  the  eastern  counties  of  Pennsylva- 
nia; and  my  purpose  now  is  to  lay  before  you 
some  assertions  and  doctrines  promulgated  on4hat 
occasion,  from  the  very  spot  where  stood  the  ex- 
pectant listeners  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  when 
that  gceat  instrument,  the  Charter  of  Human 
Rights,  was  first  to  be  read  to  the  publio. 

gov.  herschell’s  accusation  that  it  be- 
lieves THAT  “ THE  CONSTITUTION  IS  A 

LEAGUE  WITH  HELL”  REFUTED. 

Among  the  speakers  on  that  occasion  was  Gov. 
Herschel  V.  Johnson,  of  Georgia,  and  I will  quote 
from  the  report  of  his  speech  as  I find  it  in  the 
organ  of  that  party.  Standing  on  that  sacred 
ground,  in  the  midst  of  the  people  of  Philadel- 
phia, a laboring  people,  a people  who  boast  and 
justly  boast  that  their  industry  has  built  up  this 
grand  city  and  made  it  as  a manufacturing  city 
the  first  in  the  Western  World,  if  not  the  first  in 
the  world  at  large;  a people  who  read  and  write, 
a people  who  do  their  own  thinking,  a people  who 
act  according  to  their  own  impulses — he  said  : 

“There  are  men  in  Philadelphia  who  are  dissat- 
isfied with  the  Constitution,  and  tell  us  that  that 
instrument  is  ‘a  league  with  hell,  and  a compact 
with  the  devil.  And  it  is  against  these  men,  and 
this  party — by  whatever  name,  or  under  whatever 
banner  they  are  rallied — that  wo  are  to  battle. 
Fellow-citizens,  I have  no  patience  with  the  man 
— I care  not  where  he  may  reside,  whether  North 
or  South  of  Mason  and  Dixon’s  line — who,  after 
regarding  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  and  the 
blood  poured  out  in  the  maintenance  of  our  rights, 
will  hold  the  vile  sentiments  of  the  Republican 
party.” 

Suppose,  my  friends,  one  of  you  had  gone  into 
the  city  of  Richmond,  or  into  Charleston,  S.  C., 
and  had  uttered  so  vile  a libel  as  that  upon  the 
dominant  party  of  that  city,  would  you  have  been 
safe?  Would  you  not  have  been  tarred  and  fea- 
thered, ridden  on  a rail,  handcuffed,  and,  if  your  life 
had  been  spared,  sent  away  by  the  next  boat,  or 

(3) 


4 


JUDGE  KELLEY’S  SPEECH. 


the  next  train  of  cars?  Who  is  there  in  Phila- 
delphia that  is  “ dissatisfied  with  the  Constitu- 
tion?” What  man  in  the  Republican  ranks  ever 
said  that  that  Constitution  was  "a  league  with 
hell  and  a compact  with  the  devil  ?”  (Many  voices, 
“none,”  “none.”)  No,  none.  It  is  a vile  slander 
upon  the  dominant  party  of  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia, and  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  for  the  Re- 
publicans now  are,  and  were  on  the  17th  of  Sep- 
tember, the  majority  party  of  Pennsylvania. 
Cries  of  “ yes,”  “ yes,”  and  great  applause.) 

CONTRAST  BETWEEN  THE  TREATMENT  OF  GOV. 

JOHNSON,  AND  MR.  UNDERWOOD. 

What  was  the  people’s  treatment  of  the  man  who 
thus  libelled  the  majority  of  them  ? Did  they  even 
raise  a voice  against  him?  Did  they  hiss  him? 
Did  they  expel  him  from  the  city  ? Did  they  soil 
his  garments  ? No.  They  entertained  him  hos- 
pitably, and  thanked  him  for  coming  and  honestly 
telling  us  what  the  Buchanan  party  believe,  and 
he  departed  in  safety. 

By  the  contrast  between  our  treatment  of  that 
slanderous-tongued  man,  and  the  treatment  of  Mr. 
Underwood,  in  Virginia,  of  Charles  Sumner,  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  of  the  poor  Irish  ped- 
lars of  window-blinds  in  Qheraw,  South  Carolina — 
is  it  not  shown  that  we  are  the  conservative,  peace- 
loving,  Union-loving,  right-respecting  portion  of 
the  country  and  of  the  community  ? 

THE  EQUALITY  OF  THE  STATES. 

Again,  that  distinguished  gentleman  said  : 

“ What  do  the  Republicans  say  ? What  becomes 
of  State  equality , according  t%  their  platform,  ? 
Where  does  Georgia,  where  do  all  the  Southern 
States,  stand?  Are  they  to  be  treated  as  equals  in 
this  Union  ? The  Republicans  declare  that  we 
are  not  to  be  so  treated.  Is  it  not  written  upon 
their  banners  that  the  Southern  States  are  in- 
fected with  a plague-spot — that  they  are  de- 
graded, and  unworthy  to  go  into  the  territories 
of  the  United  States  ? What  is  to  be  the  result  of 
this  doctrine,  if  carried  into  effect  ? I would  that 
reflecting  men  would  decide  the  question  fairly. 
Let  them  think  of  it  at  their  firesides,  and  when 
they  lay  their  heads  upon  the  pillow  at  night.  Let 
it  be  known  every  where,  that  a party  in  sixteen 
States — Northern  States — arrogate  to  themselves 
the  right  to  elect  a President,  to  take  the  control 
of  the  government,  the  army  and  navy,  and  to  in- 
stal  their  miserable  representative  in  the  Presiden- 
tial chair,  irrespective  of  the  rights  of  the  fifteen 
Southern  States.” 

THE  CHARGE  OF  INJUSTICE  PRONOUNCED  SHAL- 
LOW TWADDLE. 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  I will  venture  to  say 
that  you  cannot  find  in  the  same  number  of  lines 
in  the  English  language  so  much  shallow  twaddle 
and  artful  misrepresentation,  as  is  embodied  in  the 
passage  I have  just  read.  Who  says  that  the 
Southern  States  are  not  equals  in  this  confederacy? 


Upon  what  Republican  banner,  spread  here  or 
anywhere,  floating  to  the  breeze  this  night,  is  it 
written  that  “ the  Southern  States  are  afflicted 
with  a plague-spot?”  Why,  we  recognise  state 
equality,  and  we  insist  upon  it.  Does  not  this 
man  know  that  16  are  a majority  of  31  ? And 
why  should  not  16  States  elect  a President — there 
are  but  31  in  the  Union?  Does  he  not  know  that 
13  millions  are  more  than  6 millions  ? and  there 
are  but  about  6 millions  of  freemen  in  the  South, 
while  there  are  13  millions  in  the  16  free  States. 
Why  should  not  16  States  elect  a President — 
especially  the  16  free  States,  with  their  13  millions 
of  people?  Does  this  man  ever  read  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States? — or  is  it  considered  in 
the  South  as  an  “incendiary  document,”  and  ban- 
ished by  the  law  of  the  land?  Does  he  not  know 
that  eight  States  may  constitutionally  elect  a Pre- 
sident ? It  requires  149  electors  to  give  us  a Presi- 
dent. New  York  casts  35  votes  ; Pennsylvania  27; 
Ohio,  23  ; Virginia,  15  ; Massachusetts,  13 ; In- 
diana) 13  ; Kentucky,  12;  Illinois,  11;  amounting 
in  all  to  149;  and  those  eight  States,  whenever 
they  may  vote  in  conjunction,  will  elect  a Presi- 
dent, though  the  other  twenty-three  States  should 
vote  in  union  for  another  candidate.  Whenever 
that  shall  take  place,  though  they  be  but  eight 
States  to  twenty-three,  that  President  for  whom 
they  cast  this  joint  vote,  will  be  installed  in  the 
Presidential  chair ; and  if  the  secessionists  and 
disunionists  of  the  South  attempt  to  prevent  his 
inauguratian,  the  free  laboring  men  of  the  North 
will  drive  them  and  their  slaves  into  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  or  down  into  Mexico  itself.  Let  them 
dare  to  touch  the  Constitution  or  the  Union  ! — 
(Unbounded  applause.  A voice,  “ that’s  the  talk.”) 
Aye,  that  is  the  talk,  my  friends.  We  love  the 
Union,  and  we  would  slaughter  our  brethren,  even, 
if  they  dared  invade  it.  (Loud  cheers,  and  cries  of 
“good,  good.”) 

RIGHTS  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  PEOPLE  IN  THE 
TERRITORIES. 

What  does  this  twaddler  wish  ? Can  the  States 
go  into  the  Territories  ? Why,  how  will  he  carry 
the  rolling  rivers  with  him  ? Who  of  their  slaves 
shall  move  the  mountains?  We  do  say,  as  the 
Creator  of  the  Universe  has  written  all  over  th£ 
Southern  country,  that  they  cannot  take  the  States 
there  ; but  we  say  that  Southern  men  may  go  with 
all  their  Constitutional  rights ; they  may  go  and 
meet  us  on  terms  of  perfect  equality.  An  Ameri- 
can citizen,  whether  he  come  from  Georgia  or  from 
Maine,  when  he  plants  his  foot  in  any  of  the  Terri- 
tories, stands  there  the  equal — not  the  superior, 
not  the  inferior,  but  the  equal — of  any  and  every 
other  man.  Into  those  Territories  all  citizens  can 
go  with  all  their  rights.  But  when  the  Virginian 
steps  out  of  Virginia,  he  leaves  the  law  of  that 
State  behind  him  and  becomes  amenable  to  the 
law  governing  the  State  into  which  he  may  go. — 


JUDGE  KELLEY’S  SPEECH. 


5 


When  the  citizen  of  Massachusetts  steps  out  of 
Massachusetts,  he  leaves  the  law  of  Massachusetts 
behind  him.  When  ho  is  in  Connecticut,  or  New 
York,  or  New  Hampshire,  or  Rhode  Island,  he  is 
under  the  law  of  the  State  in  which  he  may  be. — 
So  with  the  Southern  man  ; and  when  the  citizen 
of  a southern  State  goes  into  a Territory,  he  leaves 
the  law  of  his  State  behind  him;  it  does  not  at- 
tach to  him ; he  cannot  carry  it  beyoud  the  geo- 
graphical limits  of  his  State.  And  there  is  what 
the  South  complain  of;  but  they  dare  not  state  it 
in  fair  terms.  Their  oomplaint  is  that  we  deny 
their  right  to  carry  into  the  free  Territories  that 
law  of  their  respective  States  which  declares  that 
a man  shall  be  held  as  property — that  law  which, 
good  in  that  State,  is  bad  beyond  its  limits,  because 
it  degrades  human  nature  to  the  level  of  the  beast, 
and  makes  the  fair  maiden  and  the  growing  boy 
mere  cattle,  to  be  sold  upon  the  auction  block  ! 
(Applause.)  That  law  the  Southern  men  cannot 
carry  into  free  territories ; and  there  is  the  cause 
of  their  complaints. 

DEFENCE  OF  FREMONT. 

We  would  instal  tn  the  Presidential  chair  (says 
this  Southern  orator,)  our  “ miserable  representa- 
tive” Who  is  he?  Who  is  that  “ miserable ” 
man  ? 

Fellow  citizens,  you  have  all  read  of  the  hum- 
ble dignity  with  which  Christopher  Columbus  ap- 
pealed first  to  one  and  then  to  another  noble  or 
royal  personage,  for  patronage.  You  all  know 
he  asserted  that  by  making  a voyage  due  west 
from  Europe,  he  could  sail  to  the  wealth  of  the 
Indies  ; that  it  was  a straight  course  from  western* 
Europe  to  the  wealth  of  Asia — the  “elder  Ind.” 
He  made  the  voyage.  He  did  not  reach  the 
East  Indies  ; but  he  discovered  the  continent  of 
America  ; and  by  reason  of  his  zeal  and  perse- 
verance, we  are  here  to-night  enjoying  freedom, 
and  the  richest  of  Heaven’s  blesshags.  The  “ mise- 
rable” man  spoken  of,  is  the  one  who  has  realized 
the  dream  of  Columbus.  He  is  the  man  who  ex- 
plored, in  summer  and  in  winter,  mid  burning 
suns  and  burying  snows— the  passes  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  so  that  a grand  railway  may  be  con- 
structed from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  : and 
thus  in  a voyage  of  twenty-five  days, — ten  days 
by  steam  over  the  Atlantic  ; five  days  by  rail- 
road across  the  American  Continent ; ten  days 
again  by  steam  over  the  Pacific, — the  two  hundred 
and  fifty  millions  of  people  dwelling  in  Western 
Europe,  are  united  with  the  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  millions  dwelling  in  Asia.  What  a 
“ miserable”  man,  when  he  has  thus,  after  centu- 
ries, realized  the  great  dream  of  Columbus,  and 
knit  together  a thousand  million  of  people  in  the 
bonds  of  commercial  and  social  intercourse ! A 
“ miserable ” man,  when  he  has  made  America  the 
highway  to  the  commerce  of  the  world?  (Tre- 
mendous applause.)  Why,  if  he  be  “ miserable," 
then  may  Heaven  send  such  “misery"  upon  my 


head  ; (renewed  applause,)  I am  willing  to  suffer, 
if  I can  thus  bless  my  country  and  mankind. 
(Cheers.)  A (( miserable  ” man,  43  years  of  age, 
with  distinction  won  as  a traveller,  an  explorer,  a 
soldier  ; the  conqueror  of  California  by  the  sworn 
testimony  of  James  Buchanan  himself  ; a scholar, 
the  ripest  and  proudest  in  the  country ; a man 
whose  reputation  is  now  shedding  a lustre  upon 
the  American  character,  and  winning  honor  for 
American  enterprise  and  American  scholarship 
throughout  the  civilized  world.  Oh,  that  the 
South  could  only  furnish  us  a few  such  “ miser- 
able creatures ! (Long-continued  rapturous  ap- 
plause.) 

THE  THREATS  OF  DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  UNION. 

“ I tell  you,"  says  this  same  distinguished  ora- 
tor, “ that  my  deliberate  and  calm  opinion  is,  that 
if  Fremont  is  elected  President,  the  day  on  which  his 
election  is  announced  will  close  the  history  of  this 
Union.  Allow  me  to  put  this  simple  proposition 
to  you.  There  are  ia  the  Southern  States  upwards 
of  3,000,000  slaves,  and  they  are  worth,  to  their 
owners,  $1,200,000,000.  Now,  I want  you  to  point 
me  to  any  country  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  if  you 
can,  and  show  me  a solitary  instance  of  any  peo- 
ple, in  any  age  or  clime,  who  have  been  so  degra- 
ded and  down-trodden  by  a Government,  as  that 
they  would  calmly  submit  to  the  sacrifice  of  that 
amount  of  property.  I tell  you  it  is  not  in  human 
nature  to  submit  to  it." 

I have  already  disposed  of  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union.  We  will  take  care  of  that — especially 
if  our  candidate  be  elected.  (Applause.)  Dis- 
solve the  Union  ? The  South  dissolve  the  Union  ? 
Why,  my  friends,  this  reminds  me  of  an  incident 
that  was  related  to  me  on  a recent  visit  to  the  coal 
region  of  Pennsylvania.  I was  shown  a shaft 
three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  deep,  and  they  told  me 
how  the  workmen  occasionally  get  rid  of  a pesti- 
ferous man — one  whom  they  do  not  like,  that  may 
have  happened  to  find  work  in  the  mine.  They 
gave  me  also  a curious  illustration  of  character. 
In  this  shaft  the  workmen  are  drawn  from  the 
bottom  to  the  earth’s  surface.  When  a man  be- 
comes troublesome  to  his  fellow-workmen,  they 
watch  their  opportunity,  and  when  he  has  occasion 
to  ascend,  the  y hoist  him  nearly  to  the  top,  and 
then  let  him  hang,  refusing  to  bring  him  to  the 
earth  until  they  have  annoyed  and  vexed  him  so 
that  he  will  quit  that  place  of  business.  They 
told  me  that  one  man,  when  they  had  hoisted  him 
to  within  a few  feet  of  the  level  of  the  earth,  and 
there  let  him  remain,  took  it  at  first  as  a joke. 
Then,  after  waiting  a while,  he  became  impatient 
and  plead  to  be  lifted.  After  a while  he  became 
angry,  and  threatened  what  he  would  do  if  not 
immediately  reliveed  from  his  predicament.  The 
men  at  the  top  of  the  shaft  jeered  a little  at  him— 
reasoned  the  case  with  him— told  him  he  had  better 


6 


JUDGE  KELLEY'S  SPEECH. 


be  better-mannered  another  time.  At  last,  in  excess 
of  aggravation  he  drew  from  his  pocket  alarge  knife, 
and  raising  himself  to  the  rope,  looked  up  to  the 
men  and  said — (remember  there  was  three  hun- 
dred feet  yawning  below  him) — “ Blast  your  eyes  ! 
if  you  don’t  raise  me  “ I’ll  cut  the  rope.”  (Great 
laughter.)  And  the  act  would  have  been  a sane 
one  in  comparison  with  an  attempt  by  the  peo- 
ple of  the  South  to  dissolve  the  Union.  (“  Hear, 
hear,”  and  applause.) 

EFFECT  OF  DISSOLUTION  UPON  SLATE  PRO- 
PERTY. 

Why,  my  friends,  their  slaves  escape  now,  al- 
though between  the  slave  country  and  Canada 
there  are  fifteen  free  States,  whose  people,  loyal 
to  the  constitution,  return  the  fugitive  slaves  of  the 
South.  Let  the  Northern  States  be  an  indepen- 
dent confederacy,  so  that  the  slave,  by  merely 
crossing  an  imaginary  line  or  a narrow  river,  could 
escape  the  claim  of  his  master ; and  what  would 
slave  property  be  worth  in  Kentucky,  Virginia, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  or  Missouri  ? Why,  it  would 
meltf  away  from  its  owner  faster  than  these  splen- 
did edifices  around  me  would  be  consumed  under 
a blazing  fire,  on  a windy,  wintry  night.  Slave 
property  would  be  of  no  value  to  them  without 
the  Union. 

But,  more  than  that,  I tell  you  that  there  are 
among  the  fugitive  slaves  of  Canada  men  who 
would  now  gladly  go  into  the  South  and  excite 
servile  rebellion,  did  they  not  know  that  the  great 
Northern  States  would  pour  in  upon  them  an  army 
to  extirpate  them.  Why,  where  would  the  South 
get  an  army  with  which  to  fight  ? It  requires  all 
her  men  to  keep  her  servile  population  in  order 
now.  Said  a gentleman  within  the  last  fortnight : 
wIf  Fremont’s  elected,  slavery  will  not  exist  in 
Kentucky  and  Virginia  thirty  years ; the  aboli- 
tionists of  the  North  will  abolish  it.”  “ I tell 
you,”  said  the  Southern  man  with  whom  he  was 
conversing,  “if  the  Union’s  dissolved,  slavery  will 
not  exist  five  years ; it  is  the  North  that  holds  our 
slaves  in  check.”  Therefore,  I say  that  not  only 
are  we  prepared  to  hang  the  disunionists,  but  the 
sensible  people  of  the  South  will  hang  them  them- 
selves, if  they  attempt  to  put  their  threats  into 
execution.  (Loud  applause.) 

This  gentleman  says  that  no  people  on  ear£h 
would  submit  to  the  sacrifice  of  property  worth 
$1,200,000,000.  Who  asks  them  to  sacrifice  it? 
That  is,  like  his  other  libel  upon  the  Kepublioans, 
false — false  in  fact,  false  in  theory  ; a slander 
carved  from  the  whole  cloth.  What  Republican 
wishes  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  States  ? 
Such  a measure  is  not  in  issue ; it  is  not  one  of  the 
questions  of  the  day.  The  Republicans,  as  I have 
said,  are  loyal  to  the  Constitution.  The  only  issue 
is,  whether  slavery  shall  be  carried  into  the  Terri- 
tories. W e seek  not  to  interfere  with  it  in  the  States, 


but  we  say  that  into  the  Territories  it  shall  not 
come.  (“  Hear,  hear,”  and  cheers  ) We  say  that 
in  the  States  it  belongs  to  the  people  of  the  States, 
and  so  long  as  they  desire  to  be  cursed  by  it,  they 
may  enjoy  (?)  that  privilege  to  their  hearts’  con- 
tent; but,  by  the  grace  of  God  and  the  power  of 
freemen’s  votes,  it  never  shall  go  into  the  territo- 
ries now  free.  (Enthusiastic  cheers.) 

CONSTITUTIONAL  POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER 
THE  TERRITORIES. 

Proceeding  in  his  speech,  Gov.  Johnson  says  : 

“ The  territories  of  the  United  States  are  the 
common  property  of  all  the  States  ; and  we  have 
the  same  right  to  enjoy  them  as  the  Northern  States 
have.  Congress  is  the  trustee  of  it  ; and  if  it  was 
purchased  by  the  blood  and  treasure  of  all  the 
States,  then  the  South  has  equal  right  with  the 
North,  and  the  North  with  the  South.  This  posi- 
tion is  incontrovertible.” 

And  it  is  admitted  by  every  sound  Republican. 
There  is  no  dispute  about  that  part  of  the  argu- 
ment. But  mark  the  deduction  from  this  undi3- 
: puted  proposition. 

“ On  what  principle  of  right  and  justice,  I ask 
again,  can  the  South  be  excluded  from  it?  Sla- 
very, with  us,  is  a recognized  institution.  Slaves 
are  held  by  us  as  property,  and  it  does  not  matter 
whether  you  think  it  right  or  wrong,  for  when  the 
States  were  united  together  under  the  Constitution 
we  all  abided,  and  still  continue  to  abide,  by  that 
instrument,  and  it  recognized  slavery.  I do  not 
wish  any  of  my  fellow  citizens  present  to  concur 
with  me  in  the  abstract  question,  whether  slavery 
is  or  is  not  right — I only  ask  that  the  Constitution 
shall  be  preserved  as  it  is.” 

Our  doctrine  is  that  slavery  is  a State  institution ; 
that  it  can  only  exist  in  the  States;  that,  the  Terri- 
tories being  free,  slavery  cannot  go  into  them. 
In  1819  all  the  territory  north  of  the  Missouri 
line  was  dedicated  to  freedom  by  a sacred  com- 
pact. That  line  stood  until,  during  Pierce’s  ad- 
ministration, it  was  removed.  That  territory  is, 
therefore,  free.  Now,  by  virtue  of  what  power 
can  slavery  go  there  ? Slavery  is  not  the  natural 
condition  of  man.  You  were  not  born  slaves.  The 
people  of  England,  France,  Germany,  Spain,  Por- 
tugal, Austria,  Prussia — nay,  not  to  take  the  civil- 
ized part  of  the  world — the  people  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  the  people  of  Africa,  the  Hottentots,  the 
savages  of  onr  own  vast  wilderness — are  not  born 
slaves;  they  are  all  born  freemen.  Freedom  is 
the  natural  condition  of  man.  Freedom  is  the 
gift  of  God  to  man,  as  his  birthright.  Before  there 
can  be  slavery  there  must  be  violence.  The  poor 
African  tribe  is  oonquered  ; the  conquered  tribe  is 
enslaved.  The  kings  of  England  introduced 
slavery  into  the  Amerioan  colonies.  They  made  a 
law  tolerating  and  establishing  it,  and  it  only  com- 
menced by  the  establishment  of  positive  law.  It 
only  exists  in  any  territory  when  covered  by  such 
positive  law.  Now,  is  there  any  law  establishing 


JUDGE  KELLEY’S  SPEECH. 


slavery  in  ICan aas?  I have  shown  you  that  it 
was  free  in  1819,  and  that  it  was  solemnly  declarod 
(every  Southern  Senator,  as  well  as  every  Southern 
Representative,  except  thirteen,  voting  for  it)  that 
it  should  be  forever  free.  How,  then,  do  they  get 
the  right  to  take  their  slaves  there  ? 

CONGRESS  CANNOT  CREATE  SLAVERY. 

I am  a State  Rights  man.  Congress  has  no 
power  to  establish  slavery  or  abolish  it.  If  it  can 
establish  it  in  one  place,  it  can  abolish  it  in  an- 
other ; and  that  would  lead  us  to  a grand  central 
government ; it  would  destroy  the  sovereignty  of 
the  several  States  ; there  would  no  longer  be  a 
Union,  but  there  would  be  a centralized  govern- 
ment, and  the  power  at  Washington  would  be  as 
absolute  over  this  country  as  the  power  at  Paris  is 
over  France.  Congress  can  neither  establish  nor 
abolish  slavery  ; it  has  nothing  to  do  with  State 
institutions  ; its  powers  are  limited  by  the  specific 
grants  made  by  the  States  in  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.  If,  in  the  territories,  Congress 
cannot  establish  it,  can  any  other  power  ? The 
territories  are  governed  by  Congress,  when  they 
are  rightfully  governed.  So  Washington  held  ; 
so  the  elder  Adams  held;  so  Jefferson  held;  so 
Madison  held ; so  Monroe  ; so  the  younger  Adams ; 
so  Andrew  Jackson  ; so  Martin  Yan  Buren  ; so 
James  K.  Polk;  so  William  Henry  Harrison  ; so 
Zachary  Taylor — so  all  the  Presidents  have  held 
until  the  little  man — (somewhat  less  than  “ the 
Little  Giant”) — who  is  now  disgracing  New 
Hampshire,  came  into  the  Presidential  chair.  If 
Congress  cannot  create  slavery,  can  it  delegate  the 
power  to  the  legislature  of  a territory  ? Nothing 
in  nature  can  impart  a power  which  it  does  not 
possess ; nor  can  any  legislative  body.  What 
Congress  cannot  do  itself  it  cannot  authorize  any 
of  its  creatures  to  do  ; and  the  territorial  govern- 
ment is  but  the  creation  of  Congress.  Therefore, 
the  local  territorial  government  cannot  create  sla- 
very. When,  then,  can  it  be  created  ? Why, 
when  a State  is  established  and  the  people  adopt 
a constitution,  they  may  make  it  either  a free 
State  or  a slave  State  ; but  until  it  comes  to  the 
adoption  of  a State  Constitution  slavery  cannot  be 
established. 

The  argument  is  put  to  us  by  these  gentlemen 
from  the  South,  that  slavery  goes  into  the  Territo- 
ries by  virtue  of  the  United  States  Constitution  ; 
that  is,  that  slavery  is  national ; that  it  exists 
wherever  the  American  flag  floats.  The  doctrine 
has  been  broached  in  the  United  States  Courts, 
that  a Southern  man,  visiting  a Northern  State, 
has  a right  to  bring  with  him  his  slaves  and  keep 
them  as  long  as  he  stays.  When  you  couple  these, 
two  doctrines  : that  slavery  goes  into  the  Territo- 
ries by  virtue  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  that,  by  the  requirements  of  comity 
between  States,  the  slaveholder  may  visit  the  free 
States  and  bring  with  him  his  slaves  ; you  have 
realized  the  law  whioh  will  authorize  Senator 


Toombs  to  “ call  the  muster-roll  of  his  slaves  on 
Bunker  Hill ;”  and  you  moy  see  gangs  of  men,  wo- 
men and  children  chained  in  the  halls  that  first 
heard  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  (Great 
applause). 

THE  DEMANDS  OP  THE  SOUTH  ILLUSTRATED. 

I thought  that  the  United  States  were  a free 
country.  1 thought  that  freedom  was  national.  I 
thought  that  the  one  thing  my  countrymen  che- 
rished above  all  others  was  freedom — the  right  to 
advance  in  material  prosperity,  in  intellectual  de- 
velopment, in  moral  and  religious  growth.  I never 
knew  before  that  our  country  wa3  founded  and 
fashioned  solely  for  the  extension  and  perpetuation 
of  human  bondage  and  human  degradation. 
(Voices,  “it  was  not;”  “we  won’t  let  it  be  so ;” 
and  loud  applause.)  + 

Let  me  illustrate  this  subject — the  equality  of 
the  South  in  the  territories.  Suppose  you  have 
been  travelling  for  a day  in  a stage  coach  over  a 
rough  road,  from  earlier  in  the  morning  than  you 
are  in  the  habit  of  rising,  till  late  at  night.  You 
go  into  a little  roadside  tavern,  and  you  and  your 
fellow  passengers,  after  getting  such  fare  as  you 
can  to  regale  yourselves,  propose  to  retire.  The 
landlord  takes  three  of  you  into  a room  and  says  : 
“ I am  very  sorry  that  I have  not  better  accommo- 
dations ; we  don’t  often  have  so  many  at  once,  and 
I shall  have  to  ask  three  of  you  to  lodge  in  one 
bed.”  During  the  day  you  have  become  pretty 
sociable  with  your  travelling  companions.  You 
shrug  your  shoulders  and  say,  “Well,  it  is  not  the 
most  comfortable  thing  in  the  world  to  sleep  three 
in  a bed;  but  we  are  weary  and  we’ll  try  it.  One 
of  your  companions  begins  to  undress  pretty  rap- 
idly, and  getting  ready  to  turn  in,  he  says  to  you, 
“Which  side  had  I better  sleep  on  ?”  “Take  your 
choice,”  you  roply.  “But  there  is  a particular 
reason,”  says  he,  “why  you  had  better  decide;  it 
would  not  be  well  for  me  to  sleep  in  the  middle, 
and  I will  take  either  the  back  or  the  front  of  the 
bed,  as  you  please.”  “What's  the  difference?” 
say  you.  “Well,  nothing  in  particular,  he  replies, 
“except  that  I have  got  the  itch  very  badly , and  I 
had  better  give  it  to  only  one  of  you.”  (Shouts  of 
laughter  and  applause.)  Now,  I apprehend  that 
there  would  not  be  much  of  “State  equality” 
between  you  three,  but  you  would  say  “In  this 
case  the  majority  had  better  rule,  and  you  had 
better  take  your  itch  under  the  bed,  or  upon  a 
settee.”  Or,  if  he  had  rolled  himself  well  over  the 
bed,  you  might  not  say  anything,  but  you  would 
know  that  you  were  excluded  from  the  bed,  and 
must  sleep  on  the  hard  floor  or  go  without  sleep 
rather  than  take  the  itch. 

THE  ONE  SIDED  EQUALITY  OFFERED  TO  THE 
NORTH. 

Now,  gentlemen,  that  is  a thorough  illustration 
of  the  equality  we  are  asked  to  enjoy  by  the  South. 


8 


JUDGE  KELLEY’S  SPEECH. 


The  Constitution  gives  them  no  such  right  as  that  | 
which  they  claim — to  take  their  slaves  into  our 
free  Territories.  The  law  of  nature  gives  them  no 
such  right;  the  law  of  nations  give  them  no  such 
right;  the  laws  of  the  southern  States,  (if  I except 
Arkansas,  Mississippi,  and  Florida,)  give  them  no 
such  right,  even  by  modern  construction.  They 
have  no  suoh  right,  even  under  their  own  State 
laws,  as  interpreted  by  their  own  judges ; for  it 
has  been  decided  time  and  again,  that  the  master 
who  takes  his  slave  into  a free  State  or  country, 
manumits  him,  by  taking  him  beyond  the  law  of 
slavery.  Therefore,  according  to  the  law  of  south- 
ern States,  as  well  as  by  the  other  high  standards 
I have  given  you,  the  southern  man  who  takes  a 
slave  into  Kansas  makes  a freeman  of  him.  To 
do  that  they  have  a perfect  right. 

NORTHERN  FACTORY  OPERATIVES  CONSIDERED 
AND  CLASSED  AS  SLAVES. 

They  say  in  illustration  of  their  argument:  the 
northern  manufacturer  may  take  fifty  or  a hun- 
dred or  a thousand  hired  men  and  women  into  the 
territories ; why  shall  not  we  take  our  “servants,” 
(as  they  call  thorn.)  True,  an  enterprising  manu- 
facturer, or  miner,  or  farmer,  may  take  hired  peo- 
ple there  ; but,  does  he  own  them  ? Will  not  the 
men  be  able  to  vote,  and  outvote  him  if  they  disa- 
gree with  him  in  opinion  ? Will  they  not  be  citi- 
zens ? Will  not  the  women  go  there  to  become  the 
mothers  of  freemen  and  citizens — to  be  the  heads 
of  families  ? How  is  it  with  the  slaveholder  ? He 
goes  there,  according  to  their  theory,  to  own  these 
men  and  women  whom  he  calls  his  “ servants” — 
to  vote  for  them — to  compel  them  to  do  his  bidding 
— to  put  them  upon  the  auction  block  and  sell 
them — to  degrade  the  free  laboring  man  by  en- 
slaving the  negTO  and  his  posterity.  Is  there 
equality  in  that?  (A  general  response  of  “no, 
no.”)  No,  there  is  not,  my  friends  ; and  I will 
show  you  as  I proceed  that  if  you  let  slavery  into 
the  territories,  you  as  effectually  exclude  the  white 
laboring  man,  as  a travelling  companion  with  the 
itch  would  exclude  you  from  sharing  a narrow  bed 
with  him. 

CAPITAL  AND  LABOR. 

Remember,  my  fellow  citiens,  that  this  speech 
of  whose  doctrines  I have  given  you  a few  speci- 
mens, was  made  in  Independence  Square.  It  was 
made  under  the  window  from  which  was  first  read 
that  grand  document  which  asserts  that  “ all 
men  were  bom  equal,”  and  endowed  with  an 
inalienable  right  to  liberty.  It  was  made  under 
the  shadow  of  the  steeple  in  which  swung  that  j 
glorious  old  bell,  which  was  to  “ proclaim  liberty 
throughout  all  the  land  and  to  all  the  inhabitants 
thereof.”  And  hear  the  infamous  doctrine 
broached  to  the  workingmen,  the  manufacturers, 
and  the  mechanics  of  Philadelphia.  Conserva-  j 
tive,  peace-loviDg,  order-loving,  as  the  people  of  ; 


Philadelphia  are,  I wonder  that  this  insult  was 
not  growled  down  by  an  indignant  meeting. 

“ There  is,”  (says  he,)  “ a difference  of  opinion 
in  regard  to  the  question  whether  it  is  letter  for 
capital  to  own  its  labor  or  to  hire  it .” 

Do  you  think  it  would  be  better  that  the  capi- 
talist who  employs  you  should  own  you  ? ’ (“  No, 
no.”)  That  is  the  question  propounded  to  Phila- 
delphia workingmen : “ Whether  it  is  better  for 
capital  to  own  its  labor  or  hire  it  ?”  Why,  you 
poor  son  of  Ireland,  did  you  know,  when  you  were 
flying  from  the  oppression  of  that  land,  that  you 
were  coming  to  one  in  which  you  might  get  a 
benevolent  master  to  own  you?  You  German,  who 
have  roamed  at  least  personally  free  on  the  banks 
of  the  Rhine,  did  you  think  that  on  the  banks  of 
our  Southern  rivers  there  were  men  ready  to  pro- 
tect you  from  the  ills  of  life  by  buying  you  for 
five  hundred  or  seven  hundred  dollars,  and  owning 
you  and  your  posterity  ? They  think  it  a great 
deal  better  that  capital  should  own  labor  than  hire 
it!  Pray,  will  you  not  go  and  sell  yourselves, 
my  fellow-citizens  ? (Laughter  and  applause.) 
And  they  ask  you  to  vote  for  men  who  think  that 
it  would  be  better  for  you  if  they  owned  you.  (A 
voice:  “That’s  the  doctrine.”)  Aye,  that  is  the 
doctrine;  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Buchanan  party, 
and  the  workingman  who  casts  a Buchanan  vote 
gives  encouragement  to  the  idea  that  the  American 
laborer  is  a thing  to  be  owned.  (Voices,  “ Don't 
be  afraid;  we  won't  vote  for  him.”) 

“ In  Pennsylvania”  (he  continues)  “you  have 
determined  it  one  way,  while  in  Georgia  we  have 
settled  it  in  another.” 

And  that  other  way  is  the  way  they  want  to  set- 
tle it  in  the  territories — not  the  way  it  is  settled  in 
Pennsylvania;  and  if  you  are  true  Pennsylva- 
nians, you  will  disregard  all  old  party  ties,  all  old 
party  affinities,  all  the  opinions  of  those  with  whom 
you  have  hitherto  associated,  and  like  one  man 
vote  that  it  is  better  for  man  to  own  himself  than 
for  any  body  under  Heaven  to  own  him.  (“Hear, 
hear,”  and  tremendous  applause  ) To  vote  that 
way  you  must  vote  for  Fremont  and  Dayton. 
(Renewed  applause,  cries  of  “we  will,  we  will.”) 

“ I do  not  propose,”  (he  says)  “ to  interfere 
with  your  system,  nor  controvert  your  decision, 
and  I think  it  but  fair  that  the  South  should  be 
allowed  the  privilege  of  exeroising  the  same  lib- 
erty that  is  inestimable  to  you — to  do  as  the  State 
desires.” 

I will  show  you  in  a little  while  that  neither  the 
States  nor  the  people,  but  only  a little  batch  of 
slave-owners,  desire  the  further  recognition  of  the 
doctrine  that  capital  should  own  its  labor. 

Now,  listen  to  the  humane  reason  which  is  given 
why  it  is  better  that  capital  should  own  its  labor 
Mark  the  philanthropy  of  the  thing — dwell  upon 
its  humanity — reflect  in  your  homes  to-morrow 
upon  the  patriotism  of  the  reasons  which  are  here 
assigned  : 


JUDGE  KELLEY’S  SPEECH. 


9 


“ Our  staples  are  of  such  a character  that  we 
cannot  hire  labor  for  their  production.” 

In  other  words,  tho  labor  is  so  dangerous,  so  full 
of  disease,  so  disagreeable,  that  freemen  would  not 
do  it.  Then  let  it  go  undone.  Don’t  murder  peo- 
ple to  have  it  done. 

“ We  cannot  hire  labor  in  the  cotton  field  or  tho 
rice  swamp,  or  the  tobacco  plantation.  Why? 
Because  the  climate  is  fatal  to  the  constitution  of 
white  men.>> 

Do  they  manumit  their  white  slaves  ? When,  by 
crossing  with  the  negro  and  the  quadroon,  and  tho 
woman  with  but  one-eighth,  or  one-sixteenth,  or 
one-thirty-second  part  negro  blood  in  her  veins, 
they  have  begotten  a white  slave,  do  they  manu- 
mit him?  Oh  no;  they  send  them  into  the  cotton 
and  rice  fields,  disregarding  the  unhealthiness  of  the 
occupation. 

THE  CONDITION  OF  THE  SLAVE  STATES. 

But  let  me  show  you  the  shallowness  of  these 
arguments.  A slave  is  worth  $JOOO  or  $1500. 
They  will  no  more  send  him  into  an  unhealthy 
place  to  work,  than  they  would  make  a soldier  of 
him  to  fight  the  Northern  men,  for  you  know  it  is 
Gov.  Wise’s  threat  that  they  will  send  an  army  of 
slaves  north  to  subjugate  us.  Every  bullet  that 
you  put  into  a negro,  would  take  $1000  or  $1500 
capital  from  his  owner.  They  would  no’t  send 
their  slaves  to  where  it  i3  going  to  kill  them ; it  is 
only  gammon.  I suppose  he  thought  Northern 
people  are  like  the  great  masses  of  the  working 
people  of  his  own  State,  (as  I shall  show  you,) 
unable  to  read  and  write,  and  that  therefore  they 
would  not  examine  these  arguments,  but  would 
believe  that  what  he  said  was  truth  and  verity. 

“ You  cannot  get  them,”  (says  he,)  “ to  go  there  ; 
therefore,  unless  we  own  our  labor,  the  land  now 
under  cultivation  for  cotton,  tobacco  and  rice, 
would  lie  a barren  waste.  Southern  people  do 
not  as/c  you  to  do  anything  that  you  do  not  want 
to  do.  All  they  ask  is  that  they  should  be  allowed 
to  do  as  the  North  does — hire  labor  when  they  find 
it  best  to  do  so.” 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  this  eloquent  man  tells 
you  that  we  have  written  upon  our  banners  that 
there  is  a plague-spot  in  the  Southern  States.  It 
is  nowhere  so  written  upon  our  banners  but  I tell 
you  there  is  a plague-spot  in  the  South,  written  all 
over  the  land  ; in  the  impoverishment  of  th#soil ; 
in  the  dilapidated  condition  of  the  homes;  in  the 
want  of  populous  towns,  and  in  the  appearance  of 
the  slave  quarters — mere  huts  and  hovels — in  which 
dwell  the  laboring  men  and  women  of  the  land. 
There  is  a plague-spot  in  the  South,  that  has  taken 
away  from  the  slave  all  heart,  and  hope,  and 
mind  ; all  that  gives  proof,  by  man’s  action  through 
life,  that  he  is  an  aspiring,  hopeful,  and  immortal 
being,  a plague-spot  that  has  reduced  the  slave 
(whether  he  be  of  pure  African  blood,  or  the  brother 
or  son  of  his  master,)  boneath  the  level  of  all  that 
is  human 


There  is  a plague-spot  in  the  South,  from  which 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  natives  of  the  south- 
ern States  aro  escaping  annually  by  emigrating  to 
the  free  northern  States.  There  is  a plague-spot 
there  that  has  reduced  the  white  laboring  popula- 
tion— who  have  no  other  oapital  than  their  own 
thews  and  sinews,  their  own  good  right  arms,  their 
will  and  their  intellect — to  a condition  almost  as 
impoverished  and  degraded  as  the  slave.  The  name 
of  that  plague-spot  is  slavery.  They  are  trying  to 
extend  that  plague-spot  all  over  those  territories, 
more  than  equal  to  the  thirty-one  States  that  now 
make  up  the  American  Union  ; and  in  the  name 
of  humanity,  as  you  love  yourselves,  as  you  hope 
for  the  happiness  of  your  posterity;  as  you  would 
do  your  duty  to  man  and  God,  I call  upon  you  to 
join  in  resisting  the  spread  of  that  plague-spot  by 
electing  John  C.  Fremont  to  the  Presidency  of  this 
Union.  (Unbounded  applause,  and  a general  re- 
sponse of  “we  will.”) 

THE  DETERIORATION  OF  THE  WHITES. 

I shall  now  give  you  some  extracts  from  South- 
ern writers  and  speakers,  and  some  statistics,  to 
illustrate  the  position  which  I have  just  taken. 
First  let  me  read  to  you  an  extract  from  a paper 
on  “Domestic  Manufactures  in  the  South  and 
West,”  published  by  Mr.  Tarver,  of  Missouri,  in 
1847.  Mr.  Tarver  strove  to  improve  the  condition 
of  the  free  whites  of  the  South  by  introducing 
manufactures  into  their  midst ; and  in  the  course 
of  his  essay  he  writes  thus  of  the  free  population 
of  the  South  : 

“ The  free  population  of  the  South  may  be  di- 
vided into  two  classes — the  slaveholder  and  tho 
non-slaveholder.  I am  not  aware  ” — (he  was 
writing  in  1847,  before  the  census  of  1850  had 
been  taken,  which  settles  the  point  to  which  he 
now  alludes) — “ I am  not  aware  that  the  relative 
numbers  of  these  two  classes  have  ever  been  ascer- 
tained in  any  of  the  States,  but  I am  satisfied  that 
the  non-slaveholders  far  outnumber  the  slave- 
holders— perhaps  by  three  to  one.  In  the  more 
Southern  portion  of  this  region,  the  non  slavehold- 
ers possess,  generally,  but  very  small  means,  and 
the  land  which  they  possoss  is  almost  universally 
poor,  and  so  sterile  that  a scanty  subsistence  is  all 
that  can  be  derived  from  its  cultivation  ; and  the 
more  fertile  soil,  being  in  the  possession  of  the 
slaveholder,  must  ever  remain  out  of  the  power  of 
those  who  have  none.” 

Think  of  it,  landless  men  who  are  looking  for 
free  farms  and  free  homes  in  the  West — where 
slavery  is,  the  whiteman  is  upon  the  poor  land, 
and  even  from  that  he  is  being  driver. 

“ This  state  of  things  ” (he  continues)  “is  a great 
drawback  and  bears  heavily  upon  and  depresses 
the  moral  energies  of  the  poorer  classes.  * * * 
The  acquisition  of  a respectable  position  in  the 
scale  of  wealth  appears  so  difficult,  that  they  de- 
cline the  hopeless  pursuit,  and  many  of  them  set- 
tle down  into  habits  of  idleness,  and  become  the 


10 


JUDGE  KELLEYS  SPEECH. 


almost  passive  subjects  of  all  its  consequences. 
And  I lament  to  say  that  I have  observed  of  late 
years  that  an  evident  deterioration  is  taking  placo 
in  this  part  of  the  population,  the  younger  portion 
of  itbeir^  less  -educated,  less  industrious,  and  in 
every  point  of  view  less  respectable,  than  their  an- 
cestors.” 

What  a comparison  with  the  poor  population  of 
the  free  States ! Is  it  not  true  that  the  rising  gene- 
ration in  the  North  is  more  intelligent,  more  culti- 
vated, more  hopeful,  more  prosperous,  than  the 
generation  that  preceded  it  ? Are  there  not  more 
children  in  our  public  schools  this  year  than  ever 
before  ? Were  there  not  more  there  last  year  than 
ever  beforo  that?  Does  not  every  year  show  an 
Lnorease  of  prosperity  among  the  poor — the  rising 
poor — of  the  North?  Does  not  the  poor  free  la- 
borer come  and  put  his  children  into  the  public 
schools,  so  that  they  come  to  rank  among  the  edu- 
cated and  cultivated  working-men,  and  merchants, 
and  mechanics — the  lawyers,  doctors,  and  profes- 
sional men  of  the  country  ? Do  they  not  become 
such  staunch  n Americans”  that  sometimes  they 
think  their  own  fathers  ought  not  to  have  the  right 
to  vote,  because  they  are  so  much  more  ignorant 
than  their  children  ? (Laughter  and  applause.) 
There  is  an  increase  of  prosperity  in  the  rising 
generation  of  the  North,  while  at  the  South,  ac- 
cording to  these  Southern  writers,  there  is  a con- 
stant deterioration. 

LABOR  DISHONORED  AND  DEGRADED  AT  THE 
SOUTH. 

Gov.  Hammond,  in  an  address  before  the  South 
Carolina  Institute,  in  1850,  speaking  of  the  poor 
White  men  of  South  Carolina,  said  : 

“ They  obtain  a precarious  subsistence  by  occa- 
sional jobs,  by  hunting,  by  fishing,  by  plundering 
fields  or  folds,  and  too  often  by  what  is  in  its  effects 
far  worse — trading  with  slaves,  and  seducing  them 
to  plunder  for  their  benefit.” 

That  would  not  bo  a very  good  description  of  the 
poor  white  men  of  Philadelphia.  We  say  that 
they  earn  their  living  by  promoting  the  wealth  of 
the  community;  we  point  to  our  magnificent  build- 
ings, and  our  vast  manufactories;  we  say  that  our 
workingmen  can  make  anything  from  a cambric 
needle  to  a locomotive — from  the  delicate  mecha- 
nism of  the  watch  to  the  heavy  trip-hammer — and 
they  can  make  that  so  skilfully  that  it  may  be  let 
down  so  gently  upon  a robin’s  egg,  that  it  shall  not 
crush,  but  merely  crack  it;  or  it  may  be  let  down 
upon  tons  of  heated  iron,  and  level  it  out  into  the  flat 
surface  to  be  carved  by  the  shears.  We  boast  of  our 
workingmen.  We  point  to  our  savings  banks,  and 
show  how  many  thousands  of  them  are  depositors 
there.  We  point  to  our  building  associations,  the 
stook  of  which  is  owned  by  our  workingmen.  We 
go  into  the  streets  where  stand  rows  of  houses, 
fifteen,  seventeen,  and  twenty  feet  in  front,  two  and 
three  stories  high,  with  their  little  yards  about 


them,  and  we  point  to  them  with  pride  as  the 
homes  of  our  thrifty  laboring  man,  from  which  the 
great  men  of  the  next  generation  are  to  come. 
Going  from  these  workshops,  and  these  homes  to 
our  common  schools,  and  our  high  school,  and  the 
poor  boy,  whoso  father  is  toiling  in  the  factory, 
and  whose  mother  is  her  own  cook  ana  chamoer- 
maid,  is  found  at  the  head  of  his  class,  working 
with  that  energy  which  characterized  John  C.  Fre- 
mont when  he  was  the  student  of  John  Roberton, 
now  of  Philadelphia.  (Great  applause.) 

Again  I quote  from  a Southern  writer.  In  the 
January  numVer  of  1850  of  Be  Bow's  Review , is  an 
article  on  “ Manufactuces  in  South  Carolina,”  by 
J.  H.  Taylor,  of  Charleston,  S.  C : 

“ There  is  ” says  he  “ in  some  quarters,  a natu- 
ral jealousy  of  the  slightest  innovation  upon  es* 
tablished  habits,  and  because  an  effort  has  been 
made  to  colloct  the  poor  and  unemployed  white 
population  into  our  new  factories,  fears  have  arisen 
that  some  evil  would  grow  out  of  the  introduction 
of  such  establishments  among  us. 

“ Let  us,  however,  look  at  this  matter  with 
candor  and  calmness,  and  examine  all  its 
bearings,  before  we  determine  that  the  introduc- 
tion of  a profitable  industry  will  endanger  our  in- 
stitutions. * * * So  long  as  these  poor  but 

industrious  people  could  see  no  mode  of  living,  ex- 
cept by  a degrading  operation  of  work  with  the 
negro  upon  the  plantation,  they  were  content  to 
endure  life  in  its  most  discouraging  forms,  satisfied 
they  were  above  the  slave,  though  faring  often 
worse  than  ho.  &-***&##*# 

“ The  employment  of  the  white  labor  which  is 
now  to  a great  extent  contending  with  absolute  want , 
will  enable  this  part  of  our  population  to  surround 
themselves  with  comforts  which  poverty  now 
places  beyond  thoir  reach.” 

In  an  address  upon  the  subject  of  manufactures 
in  South  Carolina,  delivered  in  1S51,  before  the 
South  Carolina  Institute,  "William  Gregg,  Esq., 
says : — 

“ In  ail  other  countries,  and  j articularly  manu* 
faoturing  States,  labor  and  capital  are  assuming  an 
antagonistic  position.  Here  it  oannot  be  the  case : 
capital  will  be  able  to  control  labor,  even  in  manu- 
factures with  the  whites,  for  blacks  can  always  be 
resorted  to  in  case  of  need.” 

Are  you  willing  that  in  all  the  vast  territories  of 
the  Union  a system  of  labor  shall  be  introduced, 
the  effect  of  which  will  be  that  whenever  the  white 
working  men  object  to  working  fifteen  hours  a day, 
or  in  any  other  way  oppose  the  unjust  require" 
ments  of  their  employers,  blacks  can  be  substituted 
for  them?  No,  my  friends,  you  are  not,  and  you 
will  resist  it. 

This  same  writer  continues  : 

“ From  the  best  estimate  that  I have  been  able 
to  make,  I put  down  the  white  people,  who  ought 
to  work,  and  who  do  not,  or  who  are  so  employed 


JUDGE  KELLEY’S  SPEECH. 


11 


as  to  bo  wholly  unproductive  to  the  State,  at  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand.  * * /*  By 
this  it  appears  that  but  one-fifth  of  the  present  poor 
whites  of  our  State  would  be  necessary  to  operate 
1,000.000  spindles.  * * * I have  long  been 

under  the  impression,  and  every  day’s  experience 
has  strengthened  my  convictions,  that  the  evils 
exist  in  the  wholly  neglected  condition  of  this  class 
of  persons.  Any  man  who  is  an  observer  of  things, 
could  hardly  pass  through  our  country  without  be- 
ing struck  with  the  fact  that  all  the  capital,  enter- 
prise, and  intelligence,  is  employed  in  directing 
slave  labor ; and  the  consequence  is  that  a large 
portion  of  our  poor  white  people  are  wholly  ne- 
glected, and  are  suffered  to  while  away  their  exist- 
ence in  a state  but  one  step  in  advance  of  the  In- 
dian of  the  forest.” 

Now  listen  to  the  passage  which  I shall  rea^,  and 
you  will  perceive  what  is  the  condition  of  the  poor 
white  men  where  slave  labor  prevails  : 

“It  is  only  necessary,”  Mr.  Gregg  says,  “to 
build  a manufacturing  village  of  shanties,  in  a 
healthy  location,  in  any  part  of  the  State,  to  have 
crowds  of  these  people  around  you  seeking  employ- 
ment, at  half  the  compensation  given  to  operatives 
at  the  North.  It  is,  indeed,  painful  to  bebrought 
in  contact  with  such  ignorance  and  degradation.” 

Do  you  wish  to  reduce  the  laboring  population 
of  the  territories  to  such  “ ignorance  and  degrada- 
tion ?”  Do  you  wish  to  make  it  painful  for  a man 
with  a heart  in  his  breast  to  pass  among  the  labor- 
ing people  who  are  to  inhabit  all  those  vast  terri- 
tories ? If  you  do,  vote  for  Buchanan  ; but  if  you 
wish  them  to  be  freeman,  like  yourselves,  go  it 
straight  and  undivided  for  Fremont  and  Freedom. 
(Tremendous  cheering.) 

In  a paper  published  in  1852,  upon  the  “ Indus- 
trial Regeneration  of  the  South,”  advocating  man- 
ufactures, the  Hon.  J.  II.  Lumpkin,  of  Georgia, 
says  : — 

“ It  is  objected  that  these  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments will  become  the  hot-beds  of  crime.  * * 
But  I am  by  no  means  ready  to  concede  that  our 
poor,  degraded,  half-fed,  half-clothed,  and  igno- 
rant population — without  Sabbath  Schools  or  any 
other  kind  of  instruction,  mental  or  moral,  or 
without  any  just  appreciation  of  character — will  be 
injured  by  giving  them  employment,  which  will 
bring  them  under  the  oversight  of  employers  who 
will  inspire  them  with  self-respect  by  taking  an 
interest  in  their  welfare.” 

Oh,  God  ! that  it  should  require  overseers  to  in- 
spire the  laboring  men  of  America  with  self-re- 
spect or  hope  ! Oh,  no ; the  lessons  of  the  school — 
the  free  press,  to  which  you  are  all  subscribers — 
the  Church,  which  is  sustained  in  the  free  North 
by  the  laboring  and  the  rising  people — intercourse 
with  society  in  the  social  circle,  around  your  own 
hearthside,  with  your  wives  and  children  and  your 
neighbors  around  you — are  the  means  which  in- 
spire you— not  with  self-respect,  for  you  have  that 
by  nature — but  with  hope  and  courage  to  battle 


and  overcome  the  difficulties  of  this  hard  world. 
(Applause.) 

The  descriptions  of  the  condition  of  the  laboring 
men  of  the  South  I have  read,  are  from  Southern 
speakers  and  Southers  writers.  They  may  be  ex- 
aggerated ; they  may  be  highly  colored ; they 
may  be  false  ; let  me,  therefore,  turn  to  some  sta- 
tistics and  see  whether  they  contradict  or  verify 
these  statements. 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  SLAVE  AND  EREE  STATES. 

How  many  free  native  people  over  twenty  years 
of  age  are  there  in  those  States,  who  can  neither 
read  nor  write?  Mark  you,  I do  not  speak  of 
emigrants  ; I speak  of  free  white  people,  born  on 
the  soil,  over  twenty  years  of  age.  In  the  North- 
eastern States  combined,  there  are  2,399,651  free 
white  people,  and  among  that  more  than  two  mil- 
lions of  people,  there  are  but  6209  over  twenty 
years  of  age,  born  on  the  soil,  that  cannot  read 
and  write.  Now,  let  us  look  at  the  Slave  States. 
In  Alabama  there  are  419,016  people,  out  of  whom 
33,618,  over  twenty  yeas  of  age,  born  on  the  soil, 
are  unable  either  to  read  or  write.  In  Arkansas, 
out  of  160,721,  there  are  16,792  such  ; in  Ken- 
tucky, out  of  730,012,  there  are  64,340  ; in  Mis 
souri,  out  of  515,434,  there  are  34,420  ; in  Vir- 
ginia, out  of  871,817,  there  are  75,868;  in  North 
Carolina,  out  of  550,463,  there  are  73.226 ; in 
South  Carolina,  out  of  266,055,  there  are  15,580  ; 
in  Georgia,  out  of  515,120,  there  are  40,794  ; in 
Tennessee,  out  of  751,198,  there  are  77,017. 

The  statistics  present  the  case  worse  than  the 
orators  and  writers. 

Fellow  citizens,  I turn  to,  an  article  from  Mr. 
Buchanan’s  Virginia  organ — the  Richmond  En- 
quires— of  August  29,  1856 — but  one  little  month 
ago.  The  article  reads  thus  : 

“ Every  school  and  college  in  the  South  should 
teach  that  Slave  Society  is  the  common,  natural, 
rightful  and  normal  state  of  society.  Any  doctrine 
short  of  this  contains  abolition  in  the  germ,  for,  if 
it  be  not  the  rightful  and  natural  form  of  society, 
it  cannot  last,  and  we  should  prepare  for  its  gra- 
dual but  ultimate  abolition.  They  should  also 
teach  that  no  other  form  of  society  is,  in  the  gene- 
ral, right  or  expedient.” 

That  is,  they  should  teach  that  free  labor  is  im- 
moral and  inexpedient;  that  the  laboring  man,  be 
he  where  he  may,  or  be  his  race  what  it  may, 
ought  to  be  a slave  ! That  is  the  doctrine,  they 
say,  which  ought  to  be  taught  in  every  school  in 
every  Southern  State;  that  is  the  doctrine  which 
they  would  transfer  to  the  territories  ; that  is  the 
doctrine  by  which  they  would  enslave,  not  you, 
but  your  posterity  in  the  next  or  the  second 
generation. 

The  article  continues : 

" There  are  exceptional  cases,  such  as  desert  or 
mountainous  countries,  where  the  small  patches 
of  fertile  land  are  inadequate  to  support  a larger 
family  than  husband,  wife  and  children— 


12 


JUDGE  KELLEY’S  SPEECH. 


Lapland,  Sweden,  Norway,  Switzerland  and  parts 
of  Arabia — such,  also,  as  new  England,  and  Eastern 
New  York,  and  Eastern  Pennsylvania,  which, 
though  admirably  adapted  for  commerce,  manu- 
facture and  fishing,  are  little  fitted  for  farming  or 
grazing.” 

Where  do  you  think  that  man  went  to  school  ? 
Where  did  ho  get  his  geography  ? Did  he  ever 
look  into  the  statistics  of  the  census  ? Has  he  ever 
been  out  of  Virginia?  He  puts  Eastern  Pennsyl- 
vania, with  old  Berks,  and  Lancaster,  and  Chester, 
in  with  Lapland,  and  Norway,  and  Sweden,  and 
Arabia.  (Laughter.)  My  friends,  Eastern  Penn- 
sylvania may  challenge  comparison  with  the 
garden  of  the  world.  Why,  it  is  the  choice  spot — 
the  great  grain-growing  State  of  the  Union.  Last 
year  Pennsylvania  raised  over  eighteen  millions  of 
bushels  of  wheat,  and  no  other  State  in  the  Union 
came  within  a million  and  a quarter  of  bushels  of 
so  large  a crop.  What  does  this  man  mean  ? Is 
he  a lunatic  ? (Laughter;  a voice,  “yes,  he’s  a 
perfect  ninny.”)  Are  all  the  people  of  the  South 
going  mad  ? It  is  an  old  classic  adage, that  “whom 
the  gods  would  destroy,  they  first  make  mad  ;”and 
when  I find  men  ignorant  as  this  one  is,  holding 
up  the  doctrine  that  my  fellow  citizens  ought  to  be 
enslaved  because  they  labor  honestly  for  a living, 
I think  that  he  has  made  the  whole  South  mad. 
(Applause.) 

“ Free  men  ” (he  adds)  “ are  required  in  the 
former  pursuits — slaves  in  the  latter.  Hence,  ne- 
gro slavery  is  found  to  be  the  best  form  of  slavery.” 

The  best  form  of  slavery — not  the  only  form ; 
and  I suppose  the  next  best  form  of  slavery  is  that 
of  the  poor  people  of  Pennsylvania,  who  are  living 
on  the  soil  like  that  of  Lapland,  Norway,  etc. 

“ But  our  schools  should  also  teach  ” (he  con- 
tinues) “ that  the  slaves  should  be  of  a different 
race  or  nation  from  the  masters.” 

That  is,  I suppose,  they  should  be  Irishmen  or 
Germans,  or  Scotchmen,  or  Spaniards. 

“ And  the  wider  the  distinction  the  better,  as 
in  such  case  the  slave  i3  less  apt  to  feel  degraded, 
or  wish  to  assert  his  freedom  and  equality.” 

Now,  let  us  look  at  the  logic  of  this.  In  the 
next  generation  they  would  not  be  u of  a differ- 
ent race  or  nation.”  Suppose  they  should  bring 
white  men  from  other  countries  and  enslave  them, 
would  not  their  children  be  of  this  nation  ? Why, 
the  besotted  fool  ! he  does  not  comprehend  the 
meaning  of  language,  or  catch  the  glimpse  of  an 
idea. 

FEW  SCHOOL-HOUSES  AND  FEWER  BOOKS. 

“ To  teach  such  doctrines  we  must  have  South- 
ern teachers  and  Southern  school  books.” 

They  must,  for  they  could  find  no  such  teachers 
in  the  North,  and  no  writers  to  prepare  them  any 
such  books  as  those.  (Applause.)  If  they  want 
such  doctrines  taught,  they  must  get  their  teach- 
ers and  writers  in  the  South  ; and  they  will  have 


to  fish  for  fools  before  they  oan  get  them  even 
there.  (Laughter  and  applause  ) 

“ It  is  from  the  school  that  public  opinion  pro- 
ceeds, and  the  schools  should  be  set  right.  No 
teacher  should  be  employed  in  a private  family  or 
public  schools  at  the  South,  who  is  not  ready  to 
teach  these  doctrines.  Parents,  trustees  and  visi- 
tors should  look  to  this  thing. ” 

Well,  I hope  they  will.  (Laughter.) 

Now,  my  friends,  it  is  perfectly  apparent  that 
the  schools  at  the  South  are  not  intended  to  edu- 
cate men  who  are  not  rich  enough  to  own  slaves, 
for  poor  men,  laboring  men,  would  not  swallow 
such  lessons  as  theee.  They  are  regarded  (as  I 
have  said  on  a former  occasion)  as  “ poor  white 
trash,”  dangerous  to  the  community,  and  to  be 
got  rid  of.  That  is  the  position  to  which  Bu- 
chananism  would  degrade  the  laboring  men  of 
Kansas  and  of  the  other  Territories. 

THE  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  SLAVE. 

Let  us  look  at  the  doctrine  of  “capital  owning 
labor.”  The  laboring  man  who  is  owned,  comes 
home  from  the  field,  or  the  workshop,  or  from  the 
scaffold  where  he  has  been  building — for  among 
slaves  there  are  smiths,  and  carpenters,  and  brick- 
layers, and  stone-masons  ; they  are  engaged  in  all 
the  trades  that  are  followed  at  the  South ; — he 
comes  home,  after  a hard  day’s  work,  to  greet  his 
wife; — no,  not  his  wife — the  woman  he  loves  as 
his  wife — the  woman  who  has  borne  him  children 
— the  woman  whom,  in  his  rude  way,  enslaved  as 
he  is,  and  deprived  of  property,  he  cherishes  as 
his  wife,  but  who  is  not  his  wife,  because  slavery 
does  not  acknowledge  the  relation  of  man  and 
wife.  The  slave  woman  may  be  brought  into  court 
to  testify  against  the  man  she  calls  her  husband, 
and  to  whom  she  has  borne  a family  of  children; 
but  he  calls  her  his  wife — he  loves  hera3  his  wife; 
he  cherishes  her  as  the  mother  of  his  children,  the 
soother  of  his  woes.  He  comes  home  weary  from 
hi3  toil,  for  his  accustomed  greeting,  and  finds  that 
his  wife  is  not  there.  He  waits  for  her,  and  she 
comes  not.  He  goes  to  the  neighboring  hut,  and 
he  finds  sadness  upon  the  faces  there ; he  asks  for 
his  wife,  and  he  is  told  that  her  master  being  in 
debt,  the  sheriff  came  and  levied  an  execution 
upon  her,  and  that  sho  is  taken  away  to  be  sold  to 
pay  the  debt  of  the  master — a kind  man,  a man 
who  would  not  separate  husband  and  wife,  who 
would  not  tear  parent  from  children,  but  who  has 
fallen  into  debt,  and  this  poor  mechanic’s  wife  has 
been  levied  upon  as  a mare,  or  a cow,  to  be  sold  un- 
der the  sheriff’s  hammer.  Do  you  think  it  is  bet- 
ter that  “ capital  should  own  its  labor  ?”  (“No, 
no,”  and  great  applause.) 

CRUELTY  AND  DEMORALIZATION. 

Let  me  draw  you  another  picture.  A fond 
mother  in  the  morning  has  left  her  children  in  the 
hut  and  gone  to  work  in  the  tobacco  factory,  or  the 


JUDGE  KELLEY’S  'SPEECH. 


13 


cotton-field,  or  the  rice-field,  or  to  attend  the  looms 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Savannah,  where  they  are 
making  Osnabergs  and  other  coarse  cottons  to  un- 
dersell us,  because  they  lie  nearer  to  the  cotton 
field  and  pay  no  wages  for  their  labor.  She  has 
been  in  some  of  the  various  employments  all  day, 
and  at  night  she  comes  home  to  greet  her  young 
ones  that  she  loves  as  the  bear  loves  her  cubs;  she 
loves  them  as  the  only  treasure  and  only  joy  that  a 
slave-woman  may  have.  Through  the  day,  during 
the  weary  hours  of  unrequited  and  over-pushed 
toil,  her  heart  has  been  cheered  by  the  hope  of 
pleasant  dalliance  with  the  children  of  her  bosom 
in  her  little  hut;  and  she  comes  there  at  night  to 
find  it  still  and  cheerless.  She  tears  her  hair  and 
cries.  She  interrogates  the  inmates  of  the  neigh- 
boring hut,  and  finds  them  in  the  same  dread  des- 
pair that  has  seized  upon  her  soul.  She  learns  that 
“master,”  not  wishing  to  increase  the  number  of 
his  laborers,  has  sold  the  children  during  her  ab- 
sence to  a slave-driver,  who  intends  to  carry  them 
to  the  cotton  or  the  sugar  fields  in  some  other  part 
of  the  South.  Is  it  better  that  capital  should  own 
its  labor?  (A  general  indignant  shout  of  “no. 
no.”)  Oh,  no,  my  fellow-citizens,  and  I implore 
you,  in  the  name  of  God  and  humanity,  to  lay  down 
party  ties  and  party  names,  and  vote  only  for  Free- 
dom— freedom  for  yourselves  and  mankind.  (En- 
thusiastic applause.) 

EMIGRATION  FROM  THE  SOUTH  TO  THE  NORTH* 

I have  another  set  of  illustrations  to  give  you. 
and  I now  speak  not  of  slaves,  but  of  the  free  white 
men  of  the  South.  Men  love  their  homes  ; men  love 
the  place  of  their  birth  ; men  love  the  institutions 
under  which  they  pass  happy  childhood,  prosperous 
youth,  and  enter  into  asuccessful  careerofmanhood. 
There  are  thirteen  millions  of  northern  men  from 
whom  emigrants  might  go,  while  there  are  but  six 
millions  of  free  people  in  the  South  yet  the  census 
of  1850  found  609,371  persons  living  in  the  free 
States  who  were  born  in  the  slave  States,  while 
only  206,638  persons  born  in  the  free  States  were 
living  in  the  slave  States.  Yes,  my  fellow  citizens, 
in  1850  there  were  609,371  men  and  women  of 
Southern  birth  living  in  the  Northern  States  ; they 
had  fled  from  the  blessings  of  labor  owned  by  cap- 
ital. 

“ But,”  you  may  say,  “ they  had  come  to  the 
cities;  they  had  come  to  engage  in  commerce; 
they  had  come  to  pursue  the  arts  in  Philadelphia, 
New  York,  Boston;  they  had  come  to  find  employ- 
ment in  all  the  various  pursuits  of  our  great  cities.’’ 
Let  us  see,  therefore,  how  many  people  born  in  the 
planting  States  had  emigrated  into  two  States  of 
the  North — Indiana  and  Illinois — in  which  there 
are  no  great  cities — in  which,  you  may  say,  there 
ate  no  universities — in  which  the  arts  have  scarce- 
ly been  developed — in  which  commerce  has  scarce- 
• ly  a footing — which  are  two  of  the  young  grazing 
and  grain-growing  States  of  the  North.  In  1850 
there  were  in  those  two  States  47,026  who  had 


emigrated  from  North  Carolina  ; 8,231  from  South 
Carolina;  2,102  from  Georgia:  45,037  from  Ten- 
nessee ; 1,730  from  Alabama ; 777  from  Missis- 
sippi; 701  from  Louisiana;  107  from  Texas;  44 
from  Florida;  making  the  total  of  those  who  had 
left  these  nine  planting  States,  to  go  to  those  two 
agricultural  and  grazing  States,  105,755.  Do  these 
people  love  the  South  and  her  institutions  ? If 
they  do,  why  then  do  they  emigraie  into  the  free 
States  ? 'Do  the  same  class  of  people  in  the  South 
wish  that  curse  and  “ plague-spot  ” extended  to 
the  territories?  No,  my  friends,  they  do  not ; and 
, in  Kentucky,  in  Virginia,  in  Maryland,  in  Dela- 
ware, and  in  Missouri  they  have  Bepublican  tic- 
kets, and  all  that  dare  vote  that  way  will  do  so ; 
but  they  are  afraid  of  being  ground  into  the  earth 
by  their  lordly  and  aristocratic  neighbors,  the 
slave-owners.  Still  in  five  of  the  slave  States  there 
will  be  Bepublican  Tickets  run ; and  when  we 
shall  have  elected  Fremont  and  Dayton,  we  will 
find  that  there  are  scores  of  thousands — aye,  scores 
of  scores  of  thousands  of  men  in  the  South  who  will 
stand  by  Fremont,  Freedom  and  the  Union,  (great 
applause,)  asking  only  that  slavery  may  be  pro- 
tected in  the  States,  and  that  the  territories  may 
be  kept  free  from  that  which  they  feel  as  a curse 
upon  themselves,  their  children  and  their  country, 
(Cheers.) 

THE  OPERATIYE  AT  THE  SOUTH. 

From  the  same  class  of  authorities  I have  pre* 
viously  quoted,  I proceed  now  to  illustrate  the  sub- 
ject of  wages  in  these  States,  to  show  what  they 
would  be  in  the  territories,  if  the  accursed  institu- 
tion of  slavery  should  be  carried  there 

Mr.  Steadman,  of  Tennessee,  in  a paper  upon 
the  “ Extension  of  Cotton  and  Wool  Factories  at 
the  South,”  says . 

“In  Lowell,  labor  is  paid  the  fair  compensation 
of  80  cents  a day  for  men,  and  $2  a week  for 
women,  besides  board,  while  in  Tennessee  the 
average  compensation  for  labor  does  not  exoeed 
50  cents  per  day  for  men,  and  $1  25  per  week  for 
women.” 

In  a speech  made  in  Congress  five  or  six  years 
since,  Mr.  T.  L.  Clingman,  of  North  Carolina,  said : 

“ Our  manufacturing  establishments” — (that  is* 
the  manufacturing  establishments  of  North  Caro- 
lina)— “can  obtain  the  raw  material  (cotton)  at 
nearly  two  cents  on  the  pound  cheaper  than  the 
New  England  establishments.  Labor  is  likewise 
one  hundred  per  cent,  cheaper.  In  the  upper 
parts  of  the  State,  the  labor  of  either  a f ree  man 
or  a slave,  including  board,  clothing,  Ac.,  can  be 
obtained  for  from  $110  to  $120  per  annum.  It 
will  cost  at  least  twice  that  sum  in  New  England. 
The  difference  in  the  cost  of  female  labor,  whether 
free  or  slave,  is  even  greater.  As  we  have  now  a 
population  of  nearly  one  million,  we  might  advance 
to  a great  extent  in  manufacturing , before  we  ma- 
terially increased  the  wages  of  labor  ” 


14 


JUDGE  KELLEY’S  SPEECH. 


THE  WHIP  FOR  THE  MECHANIC’S  BACK. 

In  an  article  upon  the  “ Establishment  of  Manu- 
factures in  New  Orleans,”  in  De  Bow’s  Review  for 
January,  1850,  the  writer  (whose  name  is  not  given, 
but  who  appears  to  be  a citizen  of  New  Orleans,) 
says : , 

“ At  present,  the  sources  of  employment  open 
to  females,  save  in  menial  offices,  are  very  limited  ; 
and  an  inability  to  procure  suitable  occupation  is 
an  evil  much  to  be  deplored,  as  tending  in  its  con- 
sequences to  produce  demoralization. 

“ The  superior  grades  of  male  labor  may  be  con- 
sidered such  as  imply  a necessity  for  education  on 
the  part  of  the  employee,  while  the  menial  class  is 
generally  regarded  as  of  the  lowest;  and  in  a slave 
State,  this  standard  is  ‘in  the  lowest  depths  a 
lower  deep,’  from  the  fact  that,  by  association,  it 
is  a reduction  of'  the  white  servant  to  the  level  of 
their  colored  fellow-menials.” 

Mr.  Montgomery,  in  his  treatise  on  the  “ Cotton 
Manufactures  of  the  United  States  Compared  with 
Great  Britain,”  states  that  “ there  are  several  cot- 
ton factories  in  Tennessee,  operated  entirely  by 
slave  labor,  there  not  being  a white  man  in  the 
mill  but  the  superintendent.” 

Mr.  Gregg,  from  whom  I have  before  quoted, 
says  that  “ all  overseers,  who  have  experience  in 
the  matter,  -give  the  decided  preference  to  blacks 
as  operatives.” 

Why  do  they  prefer  blacks  as  operatives?  Do 
they  mean  to  say  that  they  are  better  mechanics 
than  white  men  ? Do  they  mean  to  say  that  they 
have  more  skill,  more  enerey  ? No  ; they  mean 
to  say  that  they  can  whip  them  more  readily  ; 
that  they  will  not  resist  so  promptly  when  the 
lash  is  applied  to  them ; that  they  do  not  strike 
for  an  increase  of  wages  or  for  Jhe  ten  hour  sys- 
tem. Being  slaves,  they  are  abject  and  obey  their 
master’s  will.  They  do  not  resist  their  employer 
as  does  an  independent  freemen  who  is  willing  to 
give  “ a fair  day’s  work  for  a fair  day’s  wages,” 
but  is  not  willing  to  be  oppressed — to  be  driven — 
to  be  bought  and  sold  like  cattle.  (“Hear,  hear,” 
and  applause.; 

LABOR  UNREQUIT  ED  AND  UNREWARDED — 
SKULKS  AND  IS  UNPROGRESSIVE- 

Is  superior  ingenuity  claimed  for  the  land  of 
slaves  ? I turn  to  the  records  of  the  Patent  Office 
to  see  what  the  South  has  done  in  the  way  of  in- 
ventions. The  reports  inform  us  that  of  833  pa- 
tents issued  in  1852  to  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  only  34,  or  less  than  8 per  cent,  of  the 
whole,  belong  to  the  slave  States  ; in  1853,  of  804 
issued,  71,  or  less  than  9 per  cent.,  belong  to  them* 
and  in  1854,  of  1,662  issued.  147.  or  less  than  9 
per  cent.,  are  accredited  to  them. 

No,  my  friends,  it  is  not  for  superior  ingenuity 
that  slaves  are  preferred  ; it  is  for  the  reasons  I 
have  given  you  ; and  if  you  would  have  the  la- 
borer free  in  Kansas — free  as  he  is  in  the  northern 
States— enjoying  independence  and  prosperity — 
you  must  apply  the  means  which  I have  suggested  : 


maintain  freedom  there  by  voting  for  Freedom  and 
Fremont.  (Long-continued  applause.) 

The  author  of  “ The  Future  of  the  South,”  (De 
Bow’s  Review,  vol.  10,  page  146)  says  that  “ the 
blacks  are  equally  serviceable  in  factories  as  in 
fields;”  and  a writer  in  the  Miseiesippian  says  : — 

INVENTIVE  SKILL  OF  FREE  AND  SLAVE  LABOR. 

“ Will  not  our  slaves  make  tanners  ? And  can 
they  not,  when  supplied  with  materials,  make  peg 
and  other  shoos  ? Cannot  our  slaves  make  ploughs 
harrows,  Ac.?  The  New  England  States  cannot 
make  and  send  us  brick  and  frame  houses,  and 
therefore  we  have  learned  that  out  slaves  can  make 
and  lay  bricks,  and  perform  the  work  of  house- 
joiners  and  carpenters.  In  fact,  we  know  that  in 
mechanical  pursuits,  and  manufacturing  cotton 
and  woollen  goods,  they  are  fine  laborers.” 

And  they  would  be  fine  companions  for  free 
laborers  in  the  territories — would  they  not?  Bah 
bah ! shame  upon  such  patriotism  and  such  De- 
mocracy. 

OPINIONS  OF  THE  FATHERS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 
UPON  SLAVERY 

My  friends,  the  eloquent  and  chivalrous  gentle- 
man from  the  South,  who  boldly  avowed,  in  Inde- 
pendence Square,  the  doctrine  which  the  Bucha- 
nan men  of  the  North  try  to  conceal : that  the 
great  issue  is  whether  labor  in  the  territories  shall 
be  owned  or  hired — wishing  to  introduce  in  hi3 
oration  a piece  of  pathos,  or  patriotism,  or  elo- 
quence, tried  to  lug  in  the  names  of  Washington, 
Jefferson  and  Franklin.  He  might  have  searched 
the  writings  of  these  men  in  vain  to  find  a word  in 
favor  of  slavery ; they  were  all  anti-slavery  men. 
He  might  have  traced  their  lives  in  vain  to  point 
out  a single  act  of  any  one  of  them  that  could  be 
construed  into  favoring  the  extension  or  perpetua- 
tion of  human  bondage.  (Applause.)  He  alluded 
to  the  Convention  that  formed  our  constitution, 
and  said : 

“ There  were  assembled  in  that  convention  many 
of  those  who  had  participated  actively  in  the  stir- 
ring scenes  of  our  Revolution.  Washington,  Jef- 
ferson, and  Franklin  were  there.” 

Here,  again,  he  was  mistaken.  Jefferson  was 
not  a member  of  the  convention,  but  was  represent- 
ing our  country  at  the  court  of  France  at  that  time. 
The  immortal  Franklin  : did  he  think  that,  when 
he  first  came  to  Philadelphia  from  Boston,  it  would 
have  bean  well  for  him  if  there  had  been  a benevo- 
lent man  here  to  own  him  ? (“  No,  no,”  and  ap- 
plause.) No  ; when  Benjamin  Franklin,  a poor 
boy,  came  here  to  work  as  a journeyman  printer 
he  did  not  believe  that  it  would  be  well  to  be 
owned.  He  thought  it  was  better  that  labor  should 
own  itself,  and  hire  itself  out,  as  he  did  in  a Phila- 
delphia printing  office.  (Cheers.; 

FRANKLIN’S  TOUCHING  ALLUSIONS  IN  THE  C ON- 
VENTION. 

Gov.  Johnso^,  in  his  speech,  drew  an  eloquent  • 
picture  of  the  controversies  and  difficulties  in 
that  convention,  their  inability  for  a time  to  com- 


JUDGE  KELLEY’S  SPEECH. 


15 


promise,  and  their  growing  fears  that  they  would 
be  obliged  to  disperse  without  organizing  a Union. 
He  then  continues  in  the  following  elevated  strain: 

“ The  immortal  Franklin,  with  his  hair  silvered 
over  by  the  frost  of  many  winters,  and  a brow 
upon  which  wisdom  was  enstamped — the  man  who 
himself  was  the  personation  of  a noble  dignity, 
arose  in  his  place  one  morning  and  made  tj  the 
convention,  substantially  the  following  memorable 
speech  : 

“ Said  he,  Mr.  President,  we  have  been  in  ses- 
sion for  weeks.  We  have  discovered  a contrariety 
of  opinions.  We  have  communed  and  counselled 
with  each  other.  We  have  investigated  the  his- 
tory of  the  past.  We  have  surveyed  the  map  of 
the  present.  We  have  looked  into  the  mould  of 
ancient  government.  We  have  looked  over  Europe, 
at  the  governments  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome 
for  a model  for  ours.  We  have  found  none.  We 
have  failed  to  harmonize.  And  is  it  possible  that 
this  grave  assemblage,  charged  with  such  a mo- 
mentous mission,  shall  disperse  without  meeting 
the  proud  and  high  hopes  of  the  American  people  ? 
No,  Mr.  President.  In  reflecting  on  the  condition 
of  our  affairs,  there  is  one  idea  which  strikes  my 
mind  with  peculiar  force.  It  is  this : the  Conven- 
tion has  met  morning  after  morning,  and  adjourned 
day  after  day,  without  having  once  called  on  the 
God  of  Nations  to  enlighten  our  understandings. 
This  we  have  forgotten.  We  have  neglected  to  im- 
plore the  protection  and  help  of  Him  who,  while 
he  knows  the  fall  of  a sparrow,  is  also  the  Su- 
preme Governor  of  the  universe.  Therefore,  Mr. 
President,  I move  that  from  this  time  henceforth, 
our  meetings  shall  be  opened  with  prayer. 

“There  was  a moral  sublimity  in  that  spectacle 
which  defies  description.  The  poet  may  draw  in- 
spiration from  the  shining  glories  of  the  setting 
sun,  or  the  gorgeous  and  brilliant  hues  of  the  rain- 
bow, but  there  is  no  hand  that  can  throw  upon  the 
canvas  the  grandeur  of  that  sublime  spectacle.— 
Franklin's  motion  prevailed,  and  morning  prayers 
were  offered  up  to  throne  of  the  Almighiy.  They 
were  heard,  and  the  Constitution  under  which  we 
live  was  the  response.  There  it  is — purchased  with 
the  best  olood  of  our  forefathers  and  consecrated 
by  Christian  prayer." 

Now,  I do  not  know  that  all  this  happened.  Ido 
not  know  that  it  did  not ; but  I will  admit  it  to  be 
true;  and  I will  go  further,  and  say  that  it  may 
have  been  that  those  prayers,  thus  suggested  by 
the  venerable  Franklin,  drew  upon  that  Conven- 
tion the  blessings  ef  our  Heavenly  Father,  as  his 
kite  drew  from  the  clouds  the  electric  spark,  which 
has  finally  become  the  messenger  of  man — the 
bearer  of  his  errands  of  business,  of  sorrow,  or  of 
joy. 

franklin’s  action  in  emancipation. 

But  that  was  not  the  last  time  when  Benjamin 
Franklin  uttered  a public  prayer  or  invited  his 
fellow-citizens  to  join  him  ur  prayer.  Three  years 


thereafter,  within  less  than  sixty  days  of  the  old 
man’s  death,  he  pronounced  in  public  another 
prayer.  He  had  called  upon  the  people  of  Penn- 
sylvania to  join  him  in  prayer  ; he  had  written 
out  the  prayer  and  had  it  circulated  that  they 
might  attach  their  names  to  it;  and  when  they  had 
done  so,  the  old  man,  tottering  under  the  weight 
of  more  than  fourscore  years — sustained  by  the 
wisest,  the  best,  the  most  humane  and  patriotic 
people  of  Philadelphia  and  Pennsylvania,  carried 
that  prayer  in  his  hand  to  the  bar  of  the  American 
Congress.  There,  before  the  speaker’s  chair,  stood 
the  venerable  man,  and  with  his  hair  bleached  by 
time — with  all  the  responsibility  upon  him  that 
fast-approaching  dissolution  could  give — with  the 
fear  of  God  and  the  love  of  man  dwelling  in  his 
heart — with  the  patriots  of  that  day,  young  and 
old,  gathered  around  him  upon  the  floor  of  Con- 
gress, while  its  lobbies  were  filled  with  the  men 
and  women  of  Pennsylvania — he  uttered  his  last 
public  prayer.  Had  you  lived  in  that  day,  my 
fellow-citizens,  he  would  have  uttered  your 
prayer,  and  you  would  have  felt  it  your  duty,  as 
it  would  have  been  your  pride,  to  have  had  your 
name  subscribed,  and  to  have  felt  that  that  pa- 
triot, statesman,  and  philanthropist  Was  speaking 
your  words  when  thus  surrounded  by  the  great, 
and  the  good,  and  the  wise,  and  the  powerful,  at 
the  bar  of  the  American  Congress.  He  said  : 

11  To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of 

the  United  States : 

“ From  a persuasion  that  equal  liberty  was  ori- 
ginally the  portion,  and  is  still  the  birthright,  of 
all  men,  and  influenced  by  the  strong  ties  of  hu- 
manity and  the  principles  of  their  institution,  your 
memorialists  conceive  themselves  bound  to  use  all 
justifiable  endeavors  to  loosen  the  bands  of  slavery, 
and  promote  a general  enjoyment  of  the  blessings 
of  freedom. 

“ Under  these  impressions,  they  earnestly  en- 
treat your  serious  attention  to  the  subject  of  slavery . 
that  you  will  be  pleased  to  countenance  the  resto- 
ration of  liberty  to  those  unhappy  men  who  alone, 
in  this  land  of  freedom,  are  degraded  into  per- 
petual bondage,  and  who,  amid  the  general  joy  of 
surrounding  freedom,  are  groaning  in  servile  -sub- 
jection ; that  you  will  devise  means  for  removing 
this  inconsistency  from  the  character  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  ; that  you  will  promote  mercy  and  jus- 
tice toward  this  distressed  race  ; that  you  will  step 
to  the  very  verge  of  the  power  vested  in  you  for 
discouraging  every  species  of  traffic  in  the  persons 
of  our  fellow  men.” 

IN  CONCLUSION 

Do  you  say  “ Amen”  to  that  prayer  ? (A  gene- 
ral response  of  “ Yes,”  and  great  applause.)  If 
you  do,  then  remember  that  to  pray  Well  is  to  labor, 
and  to  labor,  in  this  case,  is  to  vote.  Go  to  the 
polls,  in  October  and  in  November,  with  Franklin’s 
prayer  in  your  hearts  and  on  your  lips ; deposit 
your  vote,  and  then  work  and  pray,  until  you  shall 
have  given  Freedom  to  the  Territories. 

[Amid  the  most  powerful  demonstrations  of  ap* 
plause,  the  speaker  retired.] 


